Big League Stew

The nice and peaceful flow of a friendly baseball game was interrupted in a Mexican city named Saltillo on Tuesday as a gun battle between police and four gunmen broke out near the ballpark. As you can see in the scary photo above, players from the Triple-A level Saltillo Saraperos and the youth team they were playing an exhibition against were forced to grab whatever cover they could as police killed three of the gunmen and wounded another.

Local media reported there were no injuries among the players or fans, but photos showed what appeared to be bullet holes in the team's bus. [...]

Sergio Sisbeles, the security spokesman for Coahuila, the northern border state where Saltillo is located, said the gunbattle broke out after gunmen opened fire on a state police patrol on a street near the stadium.

Authorities couldn't confirm whether or not the suspects were involved in the drug cartels that have ripped apart the country. The AP, however, reports that the cartels are active in the region.

I've embedded a few more of the photos below, but I did pass on including the AP's grisly shots of the dead gunmen lying in the street. After all, the images I've already included should be enough to make us feel lucky for the relative peace and security we enjoy — and often take for granted — when we play or watch a simple game of baseball.